1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lens holder to be incorporated in an optical device, and a lens-fitted photographic film unit having the lens holder incorporated therein.
2. Background Arts
A lens-fitted photographic film unit with a preloaded photographic film is well known to be a simple camera for single-use. The lens-fitted photographic film unit has a lens holder incorporated therein, for holding a taking lens. In the lens holder, a flare stopper is provided to prevent the flare caused by the unnecessary light reflected on a peripheral surface of the taking lens or an inner surface of the lens holder.
Such a flare stopper is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Number 2002-250956 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Number 06-300950. The flare stopper is in the shape of a ring like a washer and made of Mylar®, which is a polyester film of, for example, 0.03 mm in thickness. The flare stopper prevents the flare by allowing the photography light to pass through an opening formed at the center thereof.
However, if the taking lens comprises a plurality of lenses including a concave lens and, at the same time, the washer-shaped flare stopper as stated above is disposed on the subject side of the concave lens to face a concave surface of the concave lens, the space between the flare stopper and the concave surface is so large that the flare stopper cannot shield the photography light toward the peripheral surface of the concave lens, which result in causing the ghost and the flare with the reflected photography light.
In order to prevent the photography light from reaching the peripheral surface of the concave lens, it is necessary to elongate the distance from an effective photographing range to the peripheral surface of the concave lens. This requires enlarging the taking lens and the lens holder.